releases: http://bucshon.house.gov/terrorist-watchlist-and-no-fly-list
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://bucshon.house.gov/terrorist-watchlist-and-no-fly-list | Terrorist Watchlist and No Fly List | 2015-12-17 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | IN | Larry Bucshon | B001275 | bucshon.house.gov | legacy | The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is administered by the FBI and maintains the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) or Watchlist, the U.S. Governments consolidated database of individuals known or reasonably suspected to have been engaged in terrorism or terrorist activities. The TSDB or Watchlist and No Fly List have been long criticized for erroneously including law-abiding persons, including U.S. citizens, based on inaccurate information, similar or identical names, misspelling of names, and the like. The process revokes citizens constitutional right to due process. Some have suggested that, and the President has called for, the abandonment of due process by prohibiting citizens on this list to purchase firearms, despite evidence that many citizens are placed on the list, through no fault of their own, with no recourse. According to the Congressional Research Service, the FBI is already alerted to Watchlist gun purchase attempts: When background checks result in either partial or incomplete criminal history records, or a terrorist watchlist (NCIC-KST) [National Crime Information Center Known or Suspected Terrorist] hit, the firearms transactions is delayed for up to three business days. If a final determination cannot be made within three business days, NICS staff maintains the transaction record in an "open" status for up to 90 days. Upon a final determination, the FBI destroys the NICS firearms transaction records if the transferee is not found to be a prohibited person. However, to reach this final determination, information on the subjects of those background checks is passed on to FBI Special Agents and Intelligence Analysts in the field.(CRS) WATCH: Congressman Trey Gowdy addressed this very issue and took the Administration to task for proposing an unconstitutional removal of citizens 2nd Amendment rights and right to due process.In his line of questioning, Gowdy asked Kelli Ann Burriesci, the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, "Is there another Constitutional right that we treat the same way for American citizens than we do the second amendment?" The Washington Post argued that,President Obama's goal was not really to keep the guns out of the hands of possible terrorists, in part because the overlap of the no-fly list and possible terrorists looks more like a Venn diagram than a circle. It was, instead, part of his effort to limit the availability of guns in general, using the no-fly list as a tool.(Washington Post) Additionally, the liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued to a federal district court in December that,the standards for inclusion on the No Fly List are unconstitutionally vague, and innocent people are blacklisted without a fair process to correct government error. Our lawsuit seeks a meaningful opportunity for our clients to challenge their placement on the No Fly List because it is so error-prone and the consequences for their lives have been devastating. Procedures for Challenging Placement on the Watchlist or No Fly List The TSDB or Watchlist and No Fly List have been long criticized for erroneously including law-abiding persons, including U.S. citizens, based on inaccurate information, similar or identical names, misspelling of names, and the like.The TSDB has also been criticized for not affording any meaningful due process by which a person can challenge their placement on the Watchlist or No Fly List. The DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) is available for individuals who have been denied or delayed airline boarding; have been denied or delayed entry into or exit from the U.S. at a port of entry or border crossing; or have been repeatedly referred to additional (secondary) screening. In 2014, a federal court ruled that the redress procedures for the No Fly List violate 5th Amendment Due Process and the Administrative Procedures Act.The court held that individuals must be provided with notice regarding their status on the No Fly List and the reasons for placement on that List and that such notice must be reasonably calculated to permit each [person] to submit evidence relevant to the reasons for their respective inclusions on the No-Fly List. In April 2015, the U.S. Government issued new administrative redress procedures designed to provide more information to persons denied or delayed boarding or entry into the U.S. to challenge a Watchlisting decision. The federal court has yet to rule on whether these new procedures satisfy Due Process and the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. NICS Background Check and the Terrorist Watchlist The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (Brady Act) requires a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) to contact NICS before any firearm transfer to a non-licensee, so NICS can perform a background check to determine whether the receipt of a firearm by the prospective transferee would violate federal or state law. NICS conducts a name search for matching records in three databases: the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which contains, among other things, information on wanted persons and protection orders; the Interstate Identification Index (III), which contains criminal history records; and the NICS Index, which contains the names and information concerning persons subject to one or more of the disqualifiers contained in the Brady Act. One of the files queried by NICS contained within NCIC is the Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST) File. The KST File is a subset of the TSDB. Any NICS query that results in a hit in the KST File automatically causes that transaction to be transferred to a NICS Legal Instruments Examiner. The NICS examiner then compares the data on the NICS search screen to the subjects information to determine whether the hit is, in fact, a valid match. If the hit appears to be a valid match, the NICS examiner informs the FFL the transaction is delayed for further research and transfers the transaction to the NICS Command Center. The FFL is not informed that the reason for the initial delay is because of a potential KST match. If the NICS Command Center discovers independent reasons to deny the transactionsuch as a felony conviction, the FFL will be informed of the denial, but research on the KST hit will continue. If there are no independent reasons for denial, the transaction will be delayed and the FFL will be advised of the delay. In this case, the FFL is not permitted to transfer the firearm until after three business days from the date the transaction was created. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |